PLANS for an incinerator to be built in the Surrey countryside have been given the green light by the county council.

The former Clockhouse Brickworks at Capel, near Dorking, have been earmarked for an Energy from Waste facility ever since the site was first included in the Surrey Waste Plan eight years ago.

On Friday, the council's planning committee voted in favour of the controversial plans, despite there having been 465 letters of objection from people local to Capel and from further afield.

Campaigners against the incinerator, which would treat waste transported from across the county, still have hope that it might be shelved though because the Surrey Waste Plan is set to be challenged at the High Court in January 2009, on the grounds that it is flawed.

Objections raised at the meeting on Friday included the fact that the Capel site is near the Surrey and Sussex border and therefore extra fuel would be emitted from heavy goods vehicles having to travel long distances across the county.

Other speakers, including Dino Adriano who spearheads the Capel Action Group, together with Capel parish councillor Paul Garber, raised concerns about the potential health risks to people living in the area.

Speaking after the application was approved, Mr Adriano said: “It was what we expected, a deferral would have been nice, but there are no surprises here today.

"We were part of this one chapter, given that they already wrote the rest of the book. This is about the Surrey Waste Plan and we will be fighting that.”

Approximately 20 objectors attended the meeting to hear the outcome.

For more on this story, see next week's Dorking edition of the Surrey Advertiser, out on Friday, October 10.